Decades Rock Live: Bonnie Raitt and Friends [DVD/CD]

Disc 1
1	Unnecessarily Mercenary / Jon Cleary DVD
2	I Will Not Be Broken DVD
3	God Was in the Water DVD
4	Gnawin' on It DVD
5	You DVD
6	Papa Come Quick DVD
7	No Gettin' Over You / Keb' Mo' DVD
8	Love Letter DVD
9	Crooked Crown DVD
10	Trinkets DVD
11	Two Lights in the Nighttime DVD
12	Well, Well, Well DVD
13	Something to Talk About DVD
14	Hear Me Lord DVD
15	I Don't Want Anything to Change / Norah Jones DVD
16	Tennessee Waltz / Norah Jones DVD
17	Love Sneakin' Up on You / Norah Jones DVD
Disc 2
1	Introduction 0:48
2	Unnecessarily Mercenary / Jon Cleary 4:03
3	I Will Not Be Broken 3:41
4	God Was in the Water 5:50
5	Gnawin' on It 4:30
6	You 5:39
7	Love Letter / Keb' Mo' 4:48
8	Two Lights in the Nighttime 4:53
9	Well, Well, Well 3:55
10	Something to Talk About 4:11
11	I Don't Want Anything to Change / Norah Jones 5:00
12	Love Sneakin' Up on You / Norah Jones 4:56

Barnes & Noble

Given the number of people she's touched and the acres of ground she's covered over her 30-plus years of slinging songs and six-string soliloquies, it's fitting that Bonnie Raitt would be the first person honored on VH-1's Decades series. That show -- one part tribute, one part concert throwdown -- is captured in full flight on this CD/DVD package, which features a slew of Raitt's comrades joining her on a well-chosen selection of hits, obscurities, and classic covers. Raitt doesn't call upon any outside help for her best-known material, using her usual backing band to chisel out sturdy takes on "Something to Talk About" and "I Will Not Be Broken," presented here with an even more plangent tone than the studio version. She does, however, bring in some pretty big guns for the rest of the set, notably Ben Harper -- a kindred spirit who meshes marvelously with Raitt on songs like the longing "Two Lights in the Nighttime" and the Dylan-penned "Well Well Well" -- and Norah Jones, who calls on her Little Willies persona for a lovely "Tennessee Waltz." There's some overlap between the 12-track audio disc and the 17-track DVD -- which also includes a good bit of behind-the-scenes footage not seen on the television broadcast -- but there's enough unique material on each to keep both in heavy rotation. David Sprague

All Music Guide

Would that this package were the other way around, but Bonnie Raitt and Friends is a DVD/CD project. The DVD contains an entire set recorded at the Trump Taj Mahal from 2005. Raitt, guitar goddess that she is and overall phenomenal spiritual presence on-stage, is joined by friends Alison Krauss, Ben Harper, Keb' Mo', and Norah Jones for two songs each, while all the while ripping through her own spirited and inspiring repertoire. The CD contains half the guest performances and most of Raitt's own show. For those who are not big music DVD fans, the entirety of the concert would have been wonderful on CD -- that's a hint, Capitol! What's really exciting about the show -- either way you catch it -- is that the edges in Raitt's voice that have been there from the beginning of her long and celebrated career, which are so often rounded off on her studio records, are present here, adding to her entirely soulful manner of phrasing and singing (being a song stylist is something she is rarely given credit for). Tracks like "Crooked Crown," "God Was in the Water," "Hear Me Lord," and "Trinkets" are deeply moving. Of her guest performances, "I Don't Want Anything to Change" with Norah Jones is stellar, as is "Unnecessary Mercenary" with funky-as-hell keyboardist Jon Cleary and "Two Lights in the Nighttime" with Ben Harper (all three appear on both discs). But Raitt shines best on her own; she needs no one and never has. There's plenty here to like, and some of it even to celebrate, but fans will have to pick their own moments. Thom Jurek